In the spirit of summer, we are giving away a free delivery of six delicious organic, cold pressed juices ($65 value) of your choice from Illuminate Juice in San Diego! If you live in San Diego County or plan to visit this summer, enter to win these amazing treats! Simply download the free Treatmo app for iPhone or iPad and friend 'MakeSimpleVegan Treats' in the app to enter by July 30. The drawing will occur on July 31! We will draw a winner at random from our MakeSimpleVegan Treats friends and send you a voucher for the juice pack. Illuminate Juice is San Diego's cold pressed juice delivery! Produce used to make the juices comes from the San Diego area so they are a local and green business. Try options like 'rise', 'shine', 'enlighten,' 'energy', 'vitality', or 'bliss' and "illuminate your body within" with their refreshing beverages! The Treatmo app let's you find amazing juice bars and health inspired bakeries and cafes across the U.S., including California, New York, Florida, Texas. Purchase items with a few taps and pick it up or have it delivered (depends on the merchant) and then chat about it with images and messages so others can experience what you enjoyed. Discover the best veg-friendly places to eat and stay healthy in your own community or when you're on the road! We all know that traveling vegan is hard in a new city or town, but Treatmo makes it easy to know where to eat or snack! You can even purchase ahead of time to reduce hassle...
Thanks for participating and see you in the app! If you win, enjoy the amazing cold pressed juices on us in San Diego this summer! Cheers!

Tap image to download Treatmo to iPhone or iPad!

Thanks to all who entered! We have selected a winner and they have been treated through theTreatmo app!

Vegans enjoy Valentine's Day just as much as anyone and even more so now because there are plenty of amazing sweets that are free of dairy or eggs. In fact, you may find that the flavor is even better. This article from Treatmo lists five wonderful treats from merchants in NYC that are vegan and replace common sweets with which you'll be familiar in the dessert world, including this organic raw chocolate from Fine & Raw. Enjoy!

P.S. If you have a vegan Valentine in Manhattan or Brooklyn, you can send them a voucher to pick-up this treat at their convenience through the Treatmo app with just a couple taps! Just another way to keep your fondest vegan in good spirits from a distance!

Some cuisines have such a long, venerable history and institutional appreciation, there is little that would change them. However, the vegan and vegetarian movement seems to have the power to do just that. Alain Ducasse, a world famous French chef who is decorated with among the most Michelin stars, is reopening a restaurant in the opulent Plaza Athene in Paris with less meat and more vegetables on the menu according to this article from the Guardian.

"It's a new expression of contemporary French haute cuisine," the company's said.

While there will still be small amounts of meat and fish on the menu, the direction of the dishes will be influenced with more plant-based ingredients.

"The planet has increasingly rare resources so we have to consume more ethically, more fairly," he told AFP.

Even though it is not a truly vegetarian establishment, it is a sign that the best chefs in the world are starting to appreciate that plant-based foods have wide appeal and will play an important role in the future of the leading restaurants around the world! Such influence from the top will surely lead to new and creative meals and perhaps a purely vegan or vegetarian high-end restaurant in Paris some day!

At a recent barbecue in Brooklyn, N.Y., a half-dozen guys who resist that particular cultural stereotype gathered together. Many of them are muscled semi-professional athletes, including triathlete Dominic Thompson, competitive bodybuilder Giacomo Marchese and mixed martial arts fighter Cornell Ward.They're also all vegans and eschew all animal products. Because these guys are so seriously, well, built, they say some people find it hard to believe they never eat meat, fish, dairy or eggs. Source

According to this article from NPR in Boston, several high performance super-strong athletes gathered in Brooklyn for a vegan BBQ. All are already vegan and are intent on saving the planet, not with their brawn, but with their forks! At the same time they are dispelling the perception that going vegan is not masculine. In fact, they are demonstrating that being concerned about health, animal welfare, and the sustainability of the planet is a macho thing to do! Most importantly, anyone can join them!

Sometimes, only those who are vegetarian or vegan can understand how certain situations may delight or aggravate their plant-based peers. This light-hearted article from the Helsinki Times lists eight such things including:

2. Only another vegetarian can understand why you would send pictures with your phone from the store to friends after discovering a new vegan-friendly product on the shelf. Source

Veganz is an all vegan supermarket chain in Germany which has become popular and profitable. Founded by Jan Bredack in Berlin, the company now plans to expand to the U.S. by opening its first store in Portland in 2016 per this article. You can take a video tour of their Berlin store through this previous blog post. The grocery store is a great concept and with the rise of the natural foods market and vegan growth trend in the U.S., the opening will be awaited earnestly by many!

But, my diet has never been an issue. I've been part of over ten serious Himalayan climbing expeditions, and I've never had any problems being a vegan, even on this last attempt to climb Everest. Source

The writer of this article from the Huffington Post explains that his vegan diet doesn't slow down his mountain climbing efforts. In fact, it gives him the extra boost to make it to the top and summit. Putting the body under extreme operating conditions will expose any weak links in fitness, concentration, and diet. If the author, who regularly puts his body to the test on the highest summits subsisting only on plant-based food, can thrive, then those of us who dwell at the lower altitudes without much duress, should benefit from this diet as well. My highest peak climbed was around 13,000 feet and my body operated efficiently all the way. I believe that my diet, as the author argues, was a major advantage!

With my latest trip to Elbrus, I proved to be the strongest climber on the team, enduring a summit under extreme conditions of cold weather, strong winds, and a full-blown whiteout. I was able to adjust to all of these severe conditions while eating healthy vegan food such as raw vegetables and fruits, buckwheat, rice porridges, wheat breads, and dried fruits and nuts. Source

To celebrate Buddha Parinirvana, a month long Buddhist celebration, the entire nation of Bhutan, located in the Himalayas, goes vegetarian according to this article.

People visit Buddhist temples, light incense sticks and observe a pious way of life in keeping with Buddhist principles of simple living. Many elders begin their day by circumambulating the nearest temple to their homes and chanting hymns.Source

Even though Bhutan's cuisine typically consists of pork, mutton, yak, and chicken, everyone adopts the vegetarian lifestyle for the festival. It also coincides with the visit of the Indian Prime Minister who is vegetarian. It's nice to see an entire nation switch to a plant-based diet for a month! It will be a time when everyone benefits!

It takes practice to change your diet, especially if the new diet is vegan. It's fairly hard to make the switch overnight. Instead a gradual transition may improve one's chances for making a plant-based diet stick. One way to ease your way into the vegan way of eating is to complement your current diet with a few habits at which vegans excel to become more familiar with the new eating patterns.This article from Everyday Health offers six ways to do this which are all very good. They include general habits like adding more veggies to your meals to specific ones like eating more fermented foods. If you try these habits and enjoy them, you are one step closer to being able to appreciate a plant-based lifestyle!